The Return of Circus Gothica
by sonikkugirl8
Summary: Things have been peaceful for Danny in the months following the Disasteroid. Ghost attacks are less frequent, some of his old enemies have allied with him, he's accepted by the town, and he's got the best girlfriend in the entire world. But what if one forgotten piece of the puzzle slips under his nose, waiting to ruin all he's worked so hard for with a simple staff? *Discontinued*
1. Prologue

Prologue

After a year of solitary confinement, Frederich Isak Showenhower, known as Freakshow by most, had nearly had it with the idiotic coppers.

Some of his sanity might have gotten mixed in there too. I mean, who decides one day to not only form a theft ring out of unsuspecting mind-controlled ghosts, one being the now VERY famous half-ghost superhero, Danny Phantom, but also try to alter reality into his own image, and then thinks that he DOESN'T belong in prison? His recently increased arrogance and seemingly incoherent outbursts were starting to seriously frighten guards and fellow inmates alike. And what's worse, lately the man had been unexplainably happy for reasons only he seemed to know.

But he had every reason to be happy and smiling. If only the stupid guards checked his cell thoroughly once in awhile…

Freakshow waited patiently for his assistant, Lydia, to phase through the walls at any moment with his requested photos. If she could, she could have already phased him out of the accursed hole and be done with it. But no. Not only would the alarms in his cell go off without his presence, but he had cuffs on him which worked like Specter Deflectors. Lydia couldn't touch him if she tried.

That wasn't what he needed right now anyways, and he'd just get thrown right back in by _Phantom…,_ he thought to himself, the name of his worst enemy said with an internal nasty hiss. He needed his precious 'weapon of choice' first. Escape would come soon after, he assured himself.

Soon, a ghost materialized in his cell, a form who he instantly recognized.

"Did you get them?" Freakshow asked his assistant carefully.

In an act of confirmation, Lydia showed off the images she had captured. In them, Freakshow saw what he was looking for: dulled, but still brilliantly colored red shards. Not too far away from them, by the look of the photographs, a slightly bent but intact pole, an image of a bat adorned on it. On the final one was a picture of the general location of the pieces with directions on how to get there from the prison, a group of train tracks back from the first time he had been arrested… the time he was first thwarted by _Phantom…_

But if Freakshow had his way, once he had all of the pieces back together again, there would NOT be a repeat of last time. Phantom, along with any other miserable ghost, half-ghost, or anything in between that crossed him, would be under his control.

All he had to do was get out of this dingy little hole.

 _ **For my third and most likely final introductory step into the world of Danny Phantom fanfics, I shall be taking a look at one of the biggest scares of my childhood: Freakshow.**_

 _ **When I was little, the episode 'Control Freaks', used to scare the ever-loving crap out of me, and though most of that came from how creepy and evil they decided to make Danny (mind control was NOT an easy topic for my 5-year-old self to grasp, you see), I've always had an uneasy feeling whenever I saw Freakshow from then on. Though I now can go back to the episode and find it a well made, funny, and all around great season finale, I still can't just easily go to it. So, I present to you this random idea I honestly just got from a recent dream and re-viewing of 'Control Freaks', and I hope you enjoy what's to come. And for those of you following my other Danny Phantom fics, those are still coming.**_


	2. Escape and Traps Aplenty

Escape and Traps Aplenty

Freakshow smiled as Lydia finally came back with the pieces of his old staff and a very strong supernatural adhesive. The staff he once used to bend ghosts, and apparently half-ghosts as he learned, to his will. It wasn't of any use before, but now that he had a plan, it was time to fix it.

It was the middle of the night, a time when absolutely no one came to check up on him. Perfect for rebuilding the glowing artifact without arousing suspicion.

Like a master of ghostly artifacts should be able, Freakshow was able to put the staff back together within hours, its hypnotic glow returning as the last piece of the crystal was placed. Already, he could feel a shift in the cold of the prison. The ghosts who haunted it wanted nothing to do with the free will shattering staff, fearing the control of the slightly psychotic human.

"Cowardly ghosts... " Freakshow said under his breath as he watched any nearby spirits scatter away from his cell. "Lydia, 'invite' some of them over to my cell if you please…"

With a nod, Lydia released her weaponized tattoos, having them chase after the flighty ghosts. After managing to capture about five of the spooks, they were brought back to the cell, the sight of the staff mesmerizing them on contact.

"Now that I have you boys' undivided attention, I have a job for you," Freakshow said with a snake-like smile. The ghosts had no other choice but to listen unconditionally, and were all given a simple task to complete. With that, Freakshow comfortably went to sleep until the guards began making their rounds.

Around 8 in the morning, Freakshow was nudged awake by one of his new slaves, just as a guard was coming in with his breakfast. All ghosts present turned themselves and the staff invisible as he entered.

"Chow time, Freakshow," The guard said indifferently as he plopped the 'food' tray into Freakshow's lap. The ringmaster looked at it mock disgustedly.

"Can't I at least have a LITTLE maple syrup for this… what, is this french toast or some kind of moldy bread?"

"It's… it's, uh… to tell ya the truth I don't know what it is. Least _I_ don't hafta eat it." The guard smiled cruelly as he took out his own breakfast, a Nasty Burger, and was about to eat it in Freakshow's face when he suddenly froze. The inmate returned the cruel smile when he was sure the guard was overshadowed by one of his new pets.

"Get these cuffs off and go turn off the alarms in my cell."

Without a word, the overshadowed guard freed Freakshow from the infernal cuffs and turned off all the alarms. The ringmaster could have simply had Lydia phase him out then and there, but he chose not to. Boldy, he walked out of his cell, closed the door behind him and went straight through the halls. Knowing this prison was haunted, he took the liberty of grabbing more pets for his army… about 30 ghosts in total to be exact. Any guard that tried to stop him was overshadowed with a snap, their memory of Freakshow's escape erased. Any inmate was intimidated into not ratting the man out, all culminating in assuring it would be awhile until his escape went public.

Phantom wouldn't know what was coming to him until it was too late.

Within minutes, Freakshow was free of the prison, an army of ghosts behind him.

He summoned one of the faster looking spirits to him. "Go to Amity Park, find Danny Phantom, and keep him busy until I make my grand entrance. I want to catch him off guard so this doesn't have to be harder than it needs to be."

With it only able to truly comprehend the eerie glow of the crystal ball, Freakshow's words bouncing around in its barely conscious mind, the ghost nodded and took off for the small town.

"The rest of you, follow me."

Freakshow, Lydia, and the other ghosts followed the speedy ghost to Amity Park, the hub of his plan for vengeance.

Time to pay the ghost boy a visit...

* * *

For young Danny Fenton, it started out as a typical school day. Typical for a young superhero anyways.

Yes, the paparazzi and fans of course hounded the boy at his house, but it wasn't anything he wasn't used to. He was in a good mood, what with no ghosts attacking so he could get a full night's rest, so he decided to just walk out of the front door and deal with them. Course they did get particularly pushy that morning.

"Danny, what are your thoughts on the new TV show they're filming about your life story?"

"Can you sign my Danny Phantom plushy?!"

"DANNY! DANNY, I LOVE YOU DANNY!"

"I LOVE HIM MORE!"

"SAYS YOU!"

Maybe I should have just taken off like normal, the teen thought to himself, mood already deflating.

"Look, guys, I'd love to stay and chat, but I'm gonna be late for school at this rate. I already have a TON of interviews later, so can y-"

"WILL YOU BE MY BOYFRIEND, DANNY?!"

Danny groaned and facepalmed, realizing talking to these people to get them to leave wasn't going to get him anywhere; pet rocks listened better than them. So he did the only thing he could think of doing.

"Look over there, it's a talking, juggling dog who enjoys creepy stalkers with came- I mean, appreciates the art of 'professional journalism'...!" The sheep-like paparazzi instantly diverted their attention from Danny, allowing him to phase through the floor and escape. He managed to pop back out away from the hounds and ran to school, barely making it on time.

Danny burst into his first period class, getting a few glances from the teacher, but otherwise, no one paid him any heed. It was a common enough occurrence at this point.

"Paparazzi again?" Tucker asked as Danny took a seat next to him and in front of Sam.

"Yep. I think I'm starting to miss when it was just ghosts that wouldn't leave me alone." Danny answered as he dug into his backpack to take out his notebook.

"You're handling it better than I would've," Sam admitted, and was most likely correct. She barely could handle the extra attention she'd been receiving from her _classmates,_ let alone people she didn't even know. The two boys snickered to themselves at the truth found in this statement.

As classes finally began, Danny's ghost sense went off, which triggered the new security system.

" _Ghost alert... Ghost alert..."_ The alarm blared. Everyone in the room looked at Danny, waiting for him to go.

"Can I be excused?" he asked instinctively, and he barely waited for the teacher's approval before turning into Danny Phantom and taking off. Sam and Tucker didn't seem very worried for him, as usually low level ghosts who didn't know who they were dealing with would dare cross Danny during school hours nowadays, so they simple prepared to take notes for their friend while he was gone

This was not one of their best ideas.

"It better not be Box Ghost again…" Danny said with an annoyed sigh once in the halls. To his relief, it wasn't the Box Ghost this time, but rather, a tiny, slender looking ghost. It had a very sleek look to it with a set of claws and sharp pointy feet, but the thing that caught Danny's attention was its blank red eyes. Yes, many sentient ghosts had eyes like it, but they at least had some feeling behind them. Where had he seen this before?

Danny tried approaching the ghost to question it, but it simply zipped behind him and kicked him hard in the back before he could react. He rolled on the ground a few feet before hopping back up into the air like nothing really happened, except for rubbing the pain out of his back.

"Not a talker, got it…" Danny recovered quickly and tried hitting the ghost with an ectoblast, but it easily dodged and headbutted him, again faster than Danny could react. This time, Danny went intangible before hitting the wall and immediately flew back into the fight. To try and confuse the ghost, he created three duplicates and surrounded it. They all tried blasting it at once, but the ghost flew up and the Dannys ended up hitting each other, making the duplicates fade.

Danny wasn't about to let the ghost make himself look like an idiot. He thought of a way to slow it down, and covered the entire hall in ice when the ghost wasn't paying attention. The ghost became too cold to properly move around quickly, and Danny punched it hard to the ground and froze it in place.

The ghost was trapped, so Danny went to his nearby locker to get a thermos out, when suddenly the halls got a lot colder. Danny's ghost sense went off once again, and sent a deep chill down his spine over how many ghosts he detected.

"Another invasion…?" Danny asked himself cautiously, and flew outside to see what was going on.

To his shock, thirty other ghosts were all waiting for him at the entrance of the high school, all with the same blank red eyes and ferocious looking glares.

Caught off guard, he couldn't prepare for the ambush of ghostly tattoos sent his way. They knocked him to the ground and the entire group of ghosts grabbed him and held him down; everything from his head to his limbs to his eyelids couldn't move, and any attempt to go intangible and escape was only met with the group going intangible along with him.

"Let go of me!" Danny tried to struggle, but even he wasn't strong enough to deal with that many ghosts holding him with iron grips at once. Freezing them would only make him more stuck. Any ectoblast on another ghost was deflected by the tattoos. And from their states, it didn't look like his Ghostly Wail would hurt them enough to get them off.

There was no was out of this.

"What the heck is up with you guys?! Why won't you let me go?!"

"Because what use would letting you go be?"

Danny tensed at the familiar voice. The ghosts forced his head to look forwards, and he was face to face with Freakshow.

"Freakshow?!" He glared at first, but the second he took a tiny glance at what he was holding, fear and anxiety threatened to overwhelm him.

"Aren't you happy to see me, Danny…? It's been a really long time, too long if you ask me..."

"H-How did you get your staff back?" Danny tried keeping his tone angry to not let on how worried and frightened he actually was, but it ended up coming out as a soft whimper. Sam told him all the things he did _last time_ he was under the control of the horrid staff and he wasn't looking forward to the inevitable conclusion of this meeting. "I thought I shattered it last time."

"Oh, you did. But you weren't smart enough to hide all the pieces after, now were you?" Freakshow was soaking in every ounce of the boy's fear, enjoying this part of the plan more than a sane person should. But then he wasn't exactly sane. Solitary didn't really help a lot with that.

Danny cursed himself for not going back after his grounding and burying the pieces while he still could, his last conscious thought before Freakshow forcibly pushed the staff right into his line of sight. The ghosts let Danny go at Freakshow's command, but instead of trying to get away, he stood, eyes as blank and red as the others, waiting for orders from his new master.

It was a sight beautiful enough to nearly bring the man to tears.


	3. This Is Different?

Chapter 2- This is... Different?

It had been nearly the entire school day since Danny went to take care of the invading ghost, and he hadn't come back. Not a trace of him was detectable around the school, and the last any of the security cameras saw of him, he was in the hallways before vanishing.

Needless to say the entire student body was scared out of their minds that their protector could have gotten himself killed. Sam and Tucker were probably the most worried of them all once it sunk in. No one in Lancer's class that day could focus on learning, much to the teacher's dismay.

"Where the heck is Fenton?"

"What if the ghost was too tough for him?"

"Is it gonna come after us next?"

"Everybody settle down!" Mr. Lancer eventually had to call from the front, making everyone pay attention to him for a short time. "I know Mr. Fenton has been missing in action all day, but I'm convinced the ghost is nothing he can't handle. For now, can we please return to our lesson?"

A few silent murmurs turned into total compliant silence as the students finally attempted to learn, if only to take their minds off of Danny.

"Thank you. Now last week, we were discussing the rules of different rhyme schemes. If you'll turn to page 120 in your textbooks…" Mr. Lancer turned to the board and began to teach, distracted enough to not hear Sam and Tucker talking behind him.

"Sheesh, I'm almost glad Danny's not here for this. Ever since that one Christmas, he can't STAND anything that rhymes. He'd probably be whining the whole time." Tucker silently joked to Sam to ease their nerves. It didn't really help anything.

"Yeah, but at least we'd know where he is…" Sam said, folding her arms in and taking on a somber tone.

"C'mon, Sam, I'm sure Danny's fine. He probably got held up by Skulker or something." Tucker replied, more to convince himself than Sam.

"But, Tucker, he hasn't been gone this long from a ghost fight in a long time. He could be in trouble."

"Have a little faith in him. It's not like he hasn't been in tough scraps before."

Sam had to silently agree to that. Between the ghost king, his future self, and even the Disasteroid, there wasn't a lot Danny couldn't handle.

...Right?

* * *

The final bell rang. Sam eventually convinced Tucker to go and look for him with a few paranoid ramblings in the middle of the hall. With Valerie tagging along ("Hey, he's _my_ friend too!") the three began their search for the missing Danny. They first checked all of the places they knew he'd be if he needed to lick his wounds and recuperate during a particularly nasty battle. His home was completely empty, with Jack and Maddie out shopping and Jazz out to the library. The park was only full of little children that day, and Danny and Sam's supposedly private lookout was occupied with another young couple making out with each other. The only one in the shipping yard was the Box Ghost. Valerie wasn't amused when she was buried in a pile of packing peanuts before Tucker caught the annoying specter.

The next best thing they could do was check the Ghost Zone.

The Ghost Portal had been outfitted with a communicator, every one of Danny's acquaintances, allies, and friends given a means of communicating through it. It was Youngblood who eventually mentioned him resting in Skulker's lair, the hunter personally wanting to nurse him to health so he can have even greater pride in finally collecting his pelt.

"It was super weird," Youngblood said in a diver costume, his skeletal assistant in the form of a dolphin with a water helmet on. "Phantom was drifting through the 'Zone when Skulker found him and kinda just let him catch him. No fight or anything. He almost looked like he was really sick."

"Anything specific?" Valerie snapped when he noticed Youngblood rambling a bit. Danny was in trouble and this ghost was wasting her time.

"Nah, he didn't look hurt or anything. Just really out of it. If you guys want him, he's still there."

"Thanks, Youngblood," Sam said with an anxious look. Why couldn't it have been someone else, she wondered regretfully to herself.

The three took the Speeder and hurried off to go and retrieve Danny. When they got to Skulker's lair, things were mildly amiss. All of the hunter's catches were running amok around the area, joyous that they were freed from capture. When asked, a freed ghost said Skulker told them he was 'feeling generous'.

That was their first red flag, but they chose to ignore it in favor of getting Danny back. Why should they give two craps about Skulker's personal life now of all times?

Their second red flag was seeing Skulker basically waiting on Danny hand in foot as if he were his butler. The three humans' jaws hung wide open as they witnessed Skulker feeding Danny, said halfa being in _human form,_ a bundle of grapes by hand. Cementing the weirdness was Danny nonchalantly waving at them with the stupidest grin on his face.

"Heya guys!" Danny said in a chipper but off tone.

Valerie was the first to break the silence. "Danny, what the _actual hell are you doing here?"_

"Skulkie invited me in," he answered neutrally while the others gaped at him.

" _SKULKIE?!"_ The three said in unison. Said ghost just blinked at them and kept feeding Danny, almost like he was completely unaware of their presence.

"You guys want some grapes too?" Danny continued without missing a beat, ignoring the trio like they had said nothing at that this situation was normal when in reality it was anything but. Before they could say anything, Danny blinked and shook his head, confusion filling his features while he looked around the lair in astonishment.

"What the heck? Is this Skulker's place…?" he murmured in a bit of a daze. The next grape feeding immediately following this wasn't appreciated, much to the surprise of the humans. He spit the grapes out and glared. " _Skulker, what the heck are you doing?!_ "

"Feeding you like you asked…" Skulker said wistfully.

" _Feeding me?!_ I don't even wanna _know_ where your hands have been." In disgust, Danny went ghost and shot an ectoblast in Skulker's chest and into a wall for the sole purpose of getting him out of the ghost boy's bubble. When Skulker recovered, all the rage the humans expected from the grape feeding oozed onto Skulker's features.

"Whelp…?" Skulker said, dazed but livid just like Danny seconds before, "What are you doing in my lair? Come to surrender and deliver yourself to me?"

"As if, you creep!"

Seeing a battle coming miles away and not wanting to deal with more of Skulker than required, Tucker simply shot a net at the enraged ghost and the three dragged Danny away, all of them promising to never speak of this awkwardness again and Danny flying home ahead of them to go brush the lingering taste of robot parts out of his mouth.

In the heat of the moment, the trio never noticed how red and blank the two beings' eyes were.

 _ **I'm so sorry for taking so long with this one. I saw that it's been about a month since I updated and I didn't wanna keep you waiting any longer.**_


	4. Presence Announced

Chapter 3- Presence Announced

By the time the trio of humans arrived at Fenton Works, Danny had brushed and rinsed his mouth with mouthwash about 7 times each, still deeply sickened that he was apparently letting Skulker _hand feed him._ He had no idea where those grapes had been and yet, there he was, getting fed grapes like some sort of Roman god.

Even the disgust of the situation that should no longer be spoken of paled in comparison to the worry and confusion. How had he ended up in the Ghost Zone in the first place? The last thing he remembered was fighting that fast ghost in the middle his school's halls; everything after that and before waking up with the creep with an obsession with wanting to skin him alive (or dead) was all a hazy blur. There were more ghosts here and there, as well as a few instances of scaring small children in an aquarium for some reason, but other than that, nothing else came to mind.

"Couldn't I have at least ended up with people that actually _like_ me, like Dani or some other ghost _besides_ Skulker…?" Danny whined to himself after he spat out his last round of mouthwash.

And the simple fact that before Danny came around, Skulker was doing something other than time to skin him disturbed the halfa to a significant degree. It wasn't like Skulker not to take advantage of such a prime opportunity. It could have attributed to the ghost being slightly more obsessed with a good hunt than the prize that came with it, but taking into consideration who Danny was, Skulker shouldn't have hesitated.

A knock came from the bathroom door, breaking Danny out of his thoughts.

"Dude, have you been in there the whole time?" he could hear Tucker ask him.

"Yep," Danny replied, without the slightest bit of shame in his voice, " and you guys better think my breath's minty fresh when I come out!" he quipped before putting away the dental hygiene products and emerging from the bathroom. As a joke, Tucker decided to give his best friend's mouth a whiff when the foursome piled onto the living room couch.

"Hmm… nope, it smells like cinnamon and regret."

"I wasn't even using cinnamon, how is that even possible?!"

" _FOCUS, YOU TWO!_ " Sam and Valerie yelled in unison, causing the boys to silence themselves. After all, they had some incredibly weird happenings to sort out.

"Danny, what happened this morning? Usually, you have no problem with ghosts nowadays and now one made you miss the entire school day," Sam asked her boyfriend, not trying to hide her concern.

"You wouldn't have liked English today anyways. Too much rhyming," Tucker added with an innocent smile, eliciting an arm punch from the still stressed out girls for butting in. "OW!"

"I don't really know, guys," Danny admitted, "I just freezed the ghost I was fighting and then I was looking for a thermos in my locker. After that, I can't remember a thing."

"Maybe the ghost knocked you out or something," Valerie suggested, trying to make sense of it all. "You _do_ usually get knocked out cold remarkably easily."

Danny glared annoyed at the appearance of a knowing smirk from the human trio. "I'm gonna pretend you didn't just say that and move on." The half-ghost got up and went to retrieve the TV remote from the coffee table. "Look guys, I wanna figure out what happened too, but I kinda wanna wait until the others get home so they can be in on it and help look for the creep." The others were about to refute this, but ultimately silenced themselves. The boy looked like he needed time to relax; they all did, really.

The listing of upcoming reports playing on the Amity Park news channel made it decidedly not a time to relax.

"Coming up, we've received word that notorious criminal and paranormal artifact obsessed psychopath, Frederick Isak Showenhower, has escaped Amity Park National Security Prison. Details next after these messages."

" _FREAKSHOW?!_ " Sam and Tucker gawked at the television screen with chills going down their spines, trying to figure out how his escape was even fathomable. Once they got the authority to do so due to Danny's newfound international hero status, they made sure to lock the whackjob away in the tightest prison in the closest place possible just so they could keep an eye on him. They had made sure to ghost proof both him and the room he was in so he couldn't even think about escape. The Guys In White were given _specific_ government order to not dare go near him like they did the last time he was put out in the open and now his ugly smiling face was there on screen in all its glory. _How in the world did he get out?!_

Valerie looked at the two teens' reactions, trying to figure out why they were so concerned. Freakshow was just some mentally disturbed whacko with ghost envy, right? Why was he such a big deal to these two? Danny didn't really look worried from where she was sitting anyways, so really it should have been no big deal.

Said ghost boy tuned out of reality and dropped into a trance the moment Freakshow's image was shown on screen, head cocked slightly to the side and eyes turned a shade of red. He was vaguely aware there were other people in the room with him, but they didn't matter. At the moment, no one except Freakshow, Danny's master, mattered. While the others were distracted, Danny was free to let the last thing Master had said to him echo in his mind: stick to the plan and kill any humans that get in your way. What that plan was, the boy didn't have the capacity to remember, but as for the 'killing humans' part…

Danny's head turned to the three other beings in the room with him, now identified as human. They didn't seem to be doing anything that counted as getting in the way, but he couldn't be too careful. Besides Master and unless stated otherwise, _every_ human was in the way of the plan, whatever it may be. Raising a palm, Danny went ghost and allowed a large amount of ecto energy to pool into it, aiming at the boy amongst the group. Just as he was about to fire it straight into the boy's head…

"...Are you even listening to me, Danny?"

Danny blinked, snapping out of his trance and eyes turning to his ghost form's normal green color. The energy faded from his palm as he focused his attention on Sam.

"Wh-What were we talking about again?" He asked, putting a hand to his head from his now developing headache. What the heck had just happened?

"What you thought we should do about Freakshow…?" Sam asked, weirded out from seeing Danny blank out like that. And why did he just go ghost for no reason?

"Oh... Obviously, wherever he is, w-we need to find him and turn him in before he does any damage," He answered. Or, rather, at least tried to answer as his 'headache' was making it hard to speak on the matter.

"If it was up to me, I'd do MORE than just turn him in," Valerie said with a growl. While Danny was out of it, Tucker explained everything he knew about the guy for her. Doing so just made Valerie want to rip the guy's head off. _He_ was the reason Danny was involved in all of those robberies way back when?! All that ended up doing was worsen the poor kid's public image and he had nothing to do with it! The others shivered as they watched Valerie try to calm herself with a couch cushion, ripping it up instead.

A few minutes later, the anticipated report finally came on.

"Our top story tonight is the escape of Freakshow, the highly dangerous and mentally unstable expert on ghostly artifacts. Guards within the prison note him 'being there one minute and then gone the next'. Currently, it is unknown if ghosts within the prison are involved with the escape, but witnesses have reported spotting him with several unidentified specters. There have also been reports of him having an encounter with Danny Phantom early this morning, currently unconfirmed." Their eyes widened at the the last statement.

"You saw him this morning?" Tucker blinked and looked at the equally stunned Danny, still holding his head from his headache.

"I-If I did, I d… don't remember it."

All attention turned to the pained looking boy as they turned the TV off and rushed to his side. Turning the TV off thankfully seemed to make the headache go away, luckily. They were about to ask what was wrong when the Fentons burst into the house with groceries in tow.

"We're back!"

"WHO WANTS SOME FUDGE?!"

All of the kids thought the same thing: The Fenton duo certainly has some rotten timing at times.


	5. Slip-Ups Happen

Chapter 4- Slip-ups Happen

After helping Jack and Maddie put away the groceries, it was time for their bi-weekly patrol. Sam and Tucker set up their equipment, Danny took to the skies with a Thermos in hand, and Valerie donned her Red Huntress hunting armor and flew next to Danny on her hover board. Usually they would only have to go on patrol once or twice a week ever since many ghosts had found better things to do than take over the world.

Freakshow was a _very_ glaring exception to this schedule.

"We'll split up and look for him," Danny instructed as he turned around and addressed his friends. "I'll take uptown. Sam, Val, you take downtown, Tuck, you take the outskirts."

"Aw, come on, you said _I_ could have uptown this time. Last time I took the outskirts, I ended up twisting my ankle and nearly getting eaten alive by Bertrand because of it!" Tucker whined, rubbing his still sore and scar covered ankle. All of them winced when he lifted his pant leg and showed them.

"...Fair point," Danny said with a sigh, "There's tons of stuff you can trip over in the dark and I don't exactly need to walk. Fine Tuck, you can take uptown and I'll take the outskirts."

"Yus!" Danny heard Tucker cry as he took off for the city limit, wanting to find Freakshow and get him back in prison as soon as physically possible.

His speed was unfortunately affected by the still lingering headache Danny could feel in the back of his mind, this, combined with what could only be described as akin to 'micro-sleep', made him crash into a lot of walls in what should have been a short flight.

Danny scowled as he had to land for the fifth time in a row to get a hold of himself. "I knew Skulker put something in those stupid grapes. They must be making me sick." A laugh got his attention as he took off to try and find the source. As soon as he got to the outside of town, he was met with exactly who he was looking for, laughing his head off with a group of ghosts surrounding him.

"Freakshow…" Danny silently growled as he turned invisible and began floating closer to the ringmaster's location; it was clear they were having a sort of conversation and the halfa thought it best to try and listen in. The distracting red glow was making it pretty hard to do, unfortunately.

The many ghosts surrounding Freakshow seemed to have another ghost with them: Technus of all people.

"UNHAND ME, OR I, TECHNUS, SHALL ENACT MY AWESOME REVENGE IN THE MOST GRUESOME AND FLASHY WAY POSSIBLE UPON YOU ALL!" Danny rolled his eyes at hearing this, and though he couldn't see Freakshow's face, he was pretty sure the man threw in a face palm of his own.

"Out of all the ghosts you idiots could have found, you pick _this_ guy?! Even Vortex is less irritating!" Danny heard Freakshow yell at the group. "Whatever. You guys are lucky his powers are incredibly useful and I asked Lenny to bring me an aspirin-" Freakshow pointed to a ghost in the crowd, presumably named Lenny, "-or else your punishments would be very… VERY painful…" The man held up a bag, and Danny, along with the group of ghosts and Technus, shivered from unconscious tingles when they realized it was a bag full of fresh blood blossoms.

"Keep note not to get me such an annoying ghost next time and I won't have to use these."

Without another word, Freakshow put the bag down and lifted up his left arm, pointing an object, his newly fixed staff, in front of Technus' line of sight. Sadly, it also gave Danny a perfect view of it from his position. All thoughts leaving his mind, Danny (as well as Technus) froze, the boy's glowing green eyes once again becoming red and dazed. He was too far away to really hear anything Freakshow was saying in his now hushed voice, but he understood one particular command: wreak havoc in any way you can.

Seeing the order as a temporary deviation from his original embedded goal, Danny did a 180 and flew straight into Downtown Amity Park, completely unaware the command wasn't meant for him whatsoever. Technus followed close behind before phasing into a stray big rig, ready to destroy anything in his path.

* * *

Meanwhile, all things were eerily silent in the downtown area. There were a few people, most walking home to turn in for the night, but not a single ghost or freakishly creepy gothic clown anywhere.

"You'd think that this place would have at least the occasional harmless ghost passing through it right now. There's nothing here," Valerie said to Sam. It was a difficult process to get Valerie to realize there were more harmless ghosts out there than just Danny and her friend, Danielle, but she now acknowledged their existence.

"Call and see if Danny and Tucker found anything yet," Sam asked of her partner, prompting Valerie to try and call the both of them through the Fenton phones. She got through to Tucker easily.

"Red Huntress to T.F., you copy?"

" _Valerie, it's not 'T.F.', it's 'Too Fine'. Why is it that Danny's the only one who gets it right?"_

"To be honest, he told me he only does it to be nice," Sam answered for Valerie, earning a shocked, mock hurt gasp from Tucker

" _...Well now, that just plain stin-"_

An explosion coming from about a mile away made Tucker and the girls go silent.

" _What the heck was that?!"_

"We don't know, Tucker," Sam answered, not liking the fact that they were about to find out. "Forget patrolling for Freakshow right now. Sounds like we've got bigger problems."

" _I'll be downtown in 5."_ With that, Tucker cut off communications and presumably took off for the explosion site.

Immediately after Tucker hung up, Sam took the initiative to call Danny and tell him what was going on.

"Goth Girl to Ghost Boy, we've got a major problem."

No answer came, the sound of static only present where her boyfriend's voice should have been present.

"Danny, are you there?" The lack of an answer had Valerie trying to get ahold of Danny herself. He wasn't picking up for her either, which was strange because he couldn't just ignore when he was being called, not with phones resting in his own ears. They either fell out… or worse.

"He's probably just distracted," Valerie said, trying to ease Sam's obvious fears. There was no doubt in Valerie's mind that Danny was perfectly fine.

Sam took a deep breath and nodded, a look of determination on her face. No need to worry about Danny at the moment when there was probably a serious ghost attack in progress right now. Grabbing their weapons from their holsters, the girls ran as fan as they could to the sight of the blast.

Little did they know Danny was actually the one causing the damage.

 _ **I was thinking about making this chapter longer, but I think this is a good place to leave it off for next chapter.**_


End file.
